BAYONNE -- In a stunning turnaround, the fourth-place finisher in Tuesday's Board of Education election now appears to have secured enough votes to retain her seat on the nine-member body.

As of 10 p.m. Tuesday, Board President Joseph Broderick, Leo Smith and Jodi Casais appeared to have won three-year terms on the BOE.

But it now seems Ava Finnerty, a current board trustee, has garnered the third most votes, bumping Smith from his would-be seat.

Tuesday night's vote total did not include roughly 1,140 mail-in ballots that the Hudson County clerk's office has since counted. Finnerty, who trailed Smith by 33 votes Tuesday, now leads him by 40 votes.

Michael Mulcahy, meanwhile, seems to have secured a one-year term, garnering 2,486 votes -- more than 700 more than the runner-up -- as of yesterday.

"I'm extremely pleased," he said. "I look forward to getting to work once this is all certified.

But these results are based upon preliminary tallies from the Hudson County clerk's office, and thanks to two recent changes to state law, that tally could quickly change as the office continues to count mail-in ballots that were mailed by Tuesday.

Officials with the Hudson County Board of Elections, who saw a mass of vote-by-mail ballots across the county this year, have added roughly 14,000 votes from mail-in ballots to Tuesday night's totals.

And recent changes to the state's voting laws say that if a voter mailed in their ballot in the 2016 election, your county clerk had to automatically mail their ballot in this year's election.

Additionally, vote-by-mail ballots used to require an arrival deadline of 8 p.m. on Election Day. Now, they can be received 48 hours from that deadline as long as the ballots are postmarked by Tuesday.

"People especially in those close races have to realize that those couple changes in the state law in the last three months really have changed our numbers situation," said Michael Harper, a clerk with the Hudson County Board of Elections.

"I don't expect to certify anything until Monday," he said. "In a close race ... it could potentially change."

One candidate appears poised to secure another three years is Broderick, who as of yesterday had 4,216 votes -- 612 more than the second-highest vote-getter.

"I'm just humbled by it," he said. "I do appreciate this victory... It shows people have some faith in me, and what we're trying to do is the right thing."